Apr 29, 2008

Assuming that most of you reading this blog are not reading the Sock Madness discussion, I'll indroduce these socks as if you hadn't seen them yet. This is the test pair of socks that I made from SM2 pattern 5 - Hippy Ripply Retro Socks. You see them here on DQ's feet because she claimed them for her own while I was still knitting them. I think that she was drawn to the yarn which is Dancing Leaf Farm Sock Hop in a color called Carnival.

I bought the yarn last fall when Felicia and I went on a studio tour in Maryland. As I worked with this yarn I realized how "not me" it is. I'm not usually a multi-color girl and this is a riot of color but I like it a lot. I can understand callin it Carnival but for me it's got a certain landscape quality. It reminds me of a painting somehow.

The pattern itself is fairly simple - slipped stitches and yarn overs - but the heel transitions turned out to be frustrating for many knitters. That made me kind of sad and I hope that the designer, Helen Darmara, is able to work it out before releasing it to the public. It wouldn't be the first time a pattern was tweaked after competition. The round 2 pattern, Reversai by Janine LeCras, caused a bit of an uproar due to the high stitch count. After it appeared in SM2, she revised it and now it's available for sale in a version with 2 sizes. If you look up Sock Madness on Ravelry or flickr you can find pictures of all of the SM2 socks. Some of them are gorgeous.

Back to these Hippy Ripply Retro socks. It's so hard to get a picture that does them justice. The colors and the texture are lovely. Dalis will be at MDS&W this weekend and i think I'll have to look her up and get more Sock Hop yarn.